.
Modeling career
After the competition, Linsay appeared in a feature article in New Tribe Magazine, Feb. 2010.Runway
Linsay was discovered at West Edmonton Mallby a Western Canada Fashion Week Designer. Linsay has walked in Western Canada Fashion Week and Edmonton Journal
. The fashion designers were in awe of Linsay’s exotic beauty and determination.
Other
Although Linsay finished second in the competition, her determination has helped make her an inspiration for First Nations youth in Canada. Jennifer Fong of Canwest News Service documented this inspiration in a July 3, 2009 online article:"Glad to see that there is finally an aboriginal woman making it into the industry," says another, Tahnee Elk. "You are inspiring to many girls out there, who also want to make it into modelling".
Tasha Sharron, 17, is one of those girls. She tries to catch Willier on TV every week with friends from Partners for Youth, an alternative program in northeast Edmonton for senior-high students, many of them aboriginal. Willier worked there as a counsellor this year as part of her practicum and guided Sharron through her last year.
"I really look up to her," says Sharron, who grew up on a reserve near Lac La Biche and has wanted to be a model since she was little. "She's a very strong young woman and a lot of girls out there need to see that, that there are people like us — aboriginals — that have been through all that stuff, (but) that can still do stuff with their lives."
There are few successful aboriginal women in the public eye, she says.
"A lot of girls drop out of school and get pregnant and stop doing what they should do," Sharron says. "Linsay's showed us that we can do stuff that we never thought we could."